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As this article explains, Keystone doesn't matter. There is an existing route to Flanagan, IL, which can be expanded without approval to Cushing, OK, and again from Cushing to the Texas Gulf. I think Keystone is still useful in that it ties up all the environmentalists, who are rarely completely informed. Meanwhile, business goes on without them.

New pipeline plan to rival Keystone XL

Amid political turmoil surrounding the Keystone XL pipeline, two companies announced plans to create a rival system to bring crude oil from Canada and the northern United States to the Gulf Coast.

The move is a response to mounting supply pressure in the north, where advances in drilling technology have heralded an oil boom that has created a glut of landlocked crude with limited transportation options.

Enbridge, Inc., of Calgary, Alberta, and Enterprise Products Partners L.P., of Houston, will collaborate on a $2 billion pipeline from Cushing, Okla., to the Houston area, according to an announcement late Monday. Enbridge will spend $1.9 to $2.8 billion to build another pipeline, from Flanagan, Ill. to Cushing, which would link it to an existing route from Canada and offer access to oil producers in the northern United States. Oil produced in the Bakken shale, including areas in North Dakota and Montana, could be shipped through the pipeline.

The pipelines don’t require the same federal approval as Keystone XL because they will not cross national borders. TransCanada’s plan to build its Keystone XL pipeline to bring oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast was rejected by the Obama administration because it said it did not have enough time to review the plan before a deadline set by Congress.

The Flanagan South pipeline, which will make up the northern leg of the announced pipeline system, will be 36 inches in diameter and have capacity of 585,000 barrels a day of oil when it is completed, likely in mid-2014, according to Enbridge. It will run alongside another existing pipeline.

Enbridge and Enterprise jointly own the Seaway, a pipeline that has moved oil from the Houston area to Cushing, but the partners are working to reverse the flow to carry products south. The new line would run parallel to the existing one and would create a combined southward capacity of 850,000 barrels a day of oil from Cushing to the Gulf Coast, Enbridge CEO Patrick D. Daniel said in the announcement.

“Enbridge’s Gulf Coast access projects give Bakken and western Canadian producers timely, economical and reliable options to deliver a variety of crudes to refinery hubs throughout the heart of North America and now as far as the Gulf Coast,” he said.

"Canadian oil sands crude is now streaming into refineries on the Texas coast at a rate of 100,000 barrels per day, even as environmentalists are attempting to block its southward flow through the Keystone XL pipeline now under construction."

The company’s Seaway pipeline, which it owns jointly with Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners, has a total capacity of up to 400,000 barrels a day, though the capacity is lower when it transports oil sands crude, Monaco said. The system connects with other pipelines that move oil from Canada and from shale plays throughout the U.S., he said.

Prior to Enbridge’s expansions and changes to its pipeline system, only small amounts of crude from Canadian oil sands made it either by rail or through small pipelines to the world-class refineries along the Gulf Coast that specialize in processing such oil, Monaco said.

The new rush of oil sands crude to the region will help increase output at refineries that “thirst for heavy crude,” he said.

It also will allow oil and gas companies to ship and sell their products for higher prices. Landlocked oil in Canada and North Dakota sometimes sells for as much as $40 a barrel less than oil regularly purchased by Gulf Coast refineries, Monaco said.

Last edited by Retread; 02-23-2013 at 06:14 PM.

It's not how old you are, it's how you got here.It's been a long road and not all of it was paved.A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. Gandhi

Originally Posted by Carol

When I judge someone's integrity one key thing I look at is - How does s/he treat people s/he doesn't agree with or does not like?
I can respect someone who I do not agree with, but I have NO respect for someone who puts others down in a public forum. That is the hallmark of someone who has no integrity, and cannot be trusted.

"Canadian oil sands crude is now streaming into refineries on the Texas coast at a rate of 100,000 barrels per day, even as environmentalists are attempting to block its southward flow through the Keystone XL pipeline now under construction."...............

That's from Cushing, OK, south, right? That would be the Seaway pipeline, which will be expanded to 585,000 barrels/day.

Even as late as 2/23 I am still seeing headlines where protestors line up and get arrested as they protest the line that doesn't matter. I think it's all kind of funny how the Canadian oil company just went around them.

BTW the capacity of these oil pipelines just blows me away. 585,000 barrels per day would be 24,000 barrels/hour or 400 barrels/minute. That's 16,600 gallons/minute.

Fixed it and added some info. Yes, there were already lines across the border and a good sized line was being used to take oil north to Cushing. They reversed the flow and hooked into some of those over-the-border lines.

It's not how old you are, it's how you got here.It's been a long road and not all of it was paved.A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. Gandhi

Originally Posted by Carol

When I judge someone's integrity one key thing I look at is - How does s/he treat people s/he doesn't agree with or does not like?
I can respect someone who I do not agree with, but I have NO respect for someone who puts others down in a public forum. That is the hallmark of someone who has no integrity, and cannot be trusted.